RunGo - The Best Routes to Run

I travel a lot for work, 14 days out of the month I’m in a different city and different hotel. I love the fact that I can look up or create a route the night before and then go run it the next day. The turn-by-turn directions are great and exactly why I use RunGo. The one thing I’d like to see tweaked is Off Route. For example, I was running on Frank Sinatra Dr in Rancho Mirage, the road is two lanes in both directions with a center island with a sidewalk on only one side. RunGo kept telling me I was Off Route because (I assume) I was on the wrong side of the road compared to what I had created. The other Off Route issue is a lack recalculating of the route, or at least an option to. For example, same run as above, I had unwittingly created a route that went through a private gated community. No big deal, I’ll just go around and come back the same way I came, pick it up on the other side. Voice prompts were reminding me every 30 seconds that I was off route. Annoying to the point I had to quit the app. Hopefully they can get this fixed, every GPS in the world automatically recalculates when you’re off route.

ask user to change the rating

I decided to load a local 25k trail run to follow and it was really frustrating to use especially if you can't use the map the whole time and you are just listening to it. After 400 ft after I'd do a climb it would tell me I'm going the wrong way. Then it keeps saying to turn right/left constantly when there is no other trail path to go so it was really confusing especially when there was actually intersection of trail paths to take. It would help to have a compass on the map and then have the current location dot be an arrow so you know what way you are facing. When you actually click on to find your current location it barely zooms in on it. I'm sure this is probably meant for roads instead of trails. I'd be wary of using it again on trails especially at a place I am not familiar with. I'm not sure if there is anyway they could have it take less battery too that could just be my Apple device's problem.

The concept is great but the app is frustrating. The points can be annoying when creating a route as it doesn’t always turn you the right way at first. For example you set a point but it thinks it’s a turn. Then has you turning in a circle when you actually want to go straight through an intersection. Also the gps goes off route a lot. I was running this morning using both RunGo for directions and Strava abs rungo thought I was completely off route interesting through the middle of the park while Strava had me along the path like I was supposed to go. Good thing I knew my way through the park. It’s very buggy and doesn’t read where you are very well. Frustrating!!

ask user to change the rating

I appreciate that this app allows me to map out new routes on my phone, unlike Runkeeper. The turn-by-turn directions for those routes, however, are far from perfect. I often end up “off route” even when I have been trying follow the app’s audio prompts. Then I have to pause, unlock my phone, and look at the map to see how to get back to the route. At some point, the app will start saying, “Off route. Rejoining route in ___ miles.” But the number of miles is way off, rendering the audio alert useless. Another problem is a lack of precision — or perhaps it is over-precision — in the turn-by-turn directions. For example, if I need to turn right, the app will often tell me to turn left, and then a few seconds later, it will tell me to turn around. I end up going the correct way, I suppose, but it is confusing for me and for others around me.

I’ve been a RunGo user for sometime. It has flaws, but overall I’m usually pretty happy. I dislike that it tells me to turn on S Pine instead of South Pine. I also dislike how precise you need to be in your map making. Sometimes on a corner it will mark a left then turn you around. If you don’t follow that slight left you’ll be “off route” and the watch has a hard time catching up. Most of the times I’m trying a new route in a familiar area, but if not I try really hard to study street names for this reason. Overall I am happy with the app and it features like seeing the map while on the run, but it has flaws which I’m sure will evaporate over time.